The Better Business Bureau Weighs in on Mass Effect's 'False Advertising'

Paul Tassi
, ContributorNews and opinion about video games, technology and the internetOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

There have been a great many arguments leveled against the rather disappointing ending(s) of Mass Effect 3 in the past few weeks. Fans bemoaned the finale as void of creativity, and furthermore, did not deliver on the game's central promise that your choices made along the way would affect the final outcome.

But some fans went so far as to say that there was actually a legal argument to be made here, that EA/Bioware have actually falsely advertised their product. Complaints were filed with the FTC and BBB, and now, one of those bodies has actually commented on the matter.

“Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome”.

“Along the way, your choices drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilizations, and even radically different ending scenarios.”

These phrases indicate that the decisions you make will produce wildly different outcomes for the games, when in fact, that doesn't appear to be the case, as the grand finale is 95% the same no matter what you do. What does this mean, however? The BBB weighs in:

"The issue at stake here is, did BioWare falsely advertise? Technically, yes, they did. In the first bullet point, where it states “the decisions you make completelyshape your experience”, there is no indecision in that statement. It is an absolute. The next statement is not so absolute. It states “your choices drive powerful outcomes”. A consumer would have to very carefully analyze this statement to come to a conclusion that the game’s outcome is not “wholly” determined by one’s choices. This statement, really though, is very subject to interpretation. Also this is just a small example of their advertising and does not take into account anything that might have been said, as far as their public relations and other advertising campaigns."

This is not an official declaration from them, and there will be no actual penalties for Bioware, but for the BBB to entertain the idea that the ending was so cookie cutter that it might actually BE false advertising certainly says something about its quality, and shows that fans are in the right to protest.

So why is this not actually pursuable? Well, the problem is the wording can be interpreted in many ways. Technically speaking, if you "made decisions" where your preparedness for the Reaper assault was lower, you would have "different" outcomes. (Spoilers) The earth could be destroyed or saved, you could die or live (well, at least get a hint that you live). Even though these distinctions are shown only in three second cutscenes, while the rest of the ending is the same except for color, it's technically "radically different" outcomes, as the fate of the entire earth and your character are in the balance. Obviously it wasn't nearly to the extent fans wanted it to be, but I don't think it could be proved in court.

I'm betting that EA is praying that there's something horrifically wrong with Diablo 3, so we can all stop talking about this in a few weeks when that game is released.